VW Themed Maret Custom Guitar

Hey everyone! Aaron here. I’ll be using this month’s blog post to talk about a custom guitar project that we’re all pretty excited about. To give you a little background, I embarked upon my path of lutherie at a pretty young age under the instruction of my father, who has been a guitar maker since long before I was born. We made guitars together as a hobby – I seriously had no idea i’d still be doing this stuff as a grown-up. And now, aside from playing music, it’s the thing I’ve been doing longer than anything else. In 2008, I co-established a custom guitar company in the San Francisco Bay Area with my best bud, James Creston. We call it Maret Guitars. We made hand-crafted custom instruments in our shop in Oakley, CA until 2012, when I took a job building electric basses at Fodera Guitars in Brooklyn, NY. After building more than 1,200 basses with them over the course of 3 years, I moved down to New Orleans and went into business with Benjamin at Strange Guitarworks. Prior to my relocation to the East Coast, Ben and I worked together for a few years repairing guitars at San Francisco Guitarworks.

To kick off the revival of Maret Guitars, James and I teamed up with Brooklyn artist Gregory Silverman to create a line of hand-painted classic car themed electric guitars (we’re kinda car nerds, too) . We started the line with a ’51 Buick Super guitar to see how the creative process would unfold. Unanimously elated at the end result, we decided to move forward with the project in earnest. The next guitar we made together is the one I’ll be covering in this post. California is the vibe we’re going for here, complete with a VW bus and a 28-piece hand-laminated surf board inlay/truss rod cover. I love doing inlay work! The pickups were hand-wound by our friend Schuyler Dean in Nashville, and we sent the painted guitar out to Pat Wilkins in Los Angeles for the final high-gloss finish. Truly a tri-coastal endeavor. We’re really excited by how this instrument came out and we hope it excites you, too!

Instead of explaining every step, I’ve decided to give you a pile of photos to enjoy. As you scroll through, I’d like you to keep in mind that these guitars are currently for sale, and we’re also available for custom projects if you have that dream guitar you’ve been thinking about.

So without further ado, here is a photo journal of the build process:

Aaron Younce

My name is Aaron. I'm a luthier by trade, and a musician and guitar tech by night. I've been studying lutherie since my early teenage years, and I've been a musician for about as long.

Prior to forming a partnership with Benjamin here in New Orleans, I was a production manager and principal luthier at Fodera Guitars in Brooklyn, NY. My past work experience also includes San Francisco Guitarworks and Carvin Guitars in Sand Diego, CA. I have a degree in Recording Arts, and I've spent countless hours in recording studios and out on the road with various bands throughout the years.

Along with these facets of my livelihood, my passion lies in the continuous pursuit of knowledge and experience.

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